Backhoe Dredger

A stationary mechanical dredger built around a hydraulic excavator mounted on a pontoon, digging with a backhoe bucket that pulls spoil toward the hull. It works on spud legs (vertical piles) that fix position and react to the digging forces, then deposits spoil into a flanking barge. Backhoe dredgers suit hard, compact, or debris-laden soils and confined sites such as quay walls; bucket sizes run from a few cubic meters on small units to over 40 cubic meters on the largest. They do not store spoil aboard, unlike a hopper dredger.